Hawley Harvey Crippen: Difference between revisions
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| birth_name = |
| birth_name = |
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1862|9|11}} |
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1862|9|11}} |
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| birth_place = [[Coldwater, Michigan]], US |
| birth_place = [[Coldwater, Michigan|Coldwater]], [[Michigan]], US |
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1910|11|23|1862|9|11}} |
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1910|11|23|1862|9|11}} |
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| death_place = [[Pentonville Prison]], London, England |
| death_place = [[Pentonville Prison]], [[London]], England, UK |
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| death_cause = [[Execution by hanging]] |
| death_cause = [[Execution by hanging]] |
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| resting_place = [[HM Prison Pentonville]] |
| resting_place = [[HM Prison Pentonville]] |
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| criminal_penalty = [[Capital punishment|Death]] |
| criminal_penalty = [[Capital punishment|Death]] |
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'''Hawley Harvey Crippen''' (September 11, 1862 – November 23, 1910), colloquially known as '''Dr. Crippen''', was an American [[Homeopathy|homeopath]], ear and eye specialist and medicine dispenser who was hanged in [[HM Prison Pentonville|Pentonville Prison]], [[London]], for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen. He was one of the first criminals to be captured with the aid of [[wireless telegraphy]].<ref name="pbs.org"/> |
'''Hawley Harvey Crippen''' (September 11, 1862 – November 23, 1910), colloquially known as '''Dr. Crippen''', was an American [[Homeopathy|homeopath]], [[Otolaryngology|ear]] and [[Ophthalmology|eye]] specialist and medicine dispenser who was hanged in [[HM Prison Pentonville|Pentonville Prison]], [[London]], for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen. He was one of the first criminals to be captured with the aid of [[wireless telegraphy]].<ref name="pbs.org"/> |
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==Early life and career== |
==Early life and career== |
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| first= Martin | last= Fido |
| first= Martin | last= Fido |
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|title=Crippen, Hawley Harvey (1862–1910), murderer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39420 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39420 |year=2004 |access-date=12 May 2023 |language=en}} |
|title=Crippen, Hawley Harvey (1862–1910), murderer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39420 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39420 |year=2004 |access-date=12 May 2023 |language=en}} |
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</ref> |
</ref> He was educated first at the [[University of Michigan]]'s [[homeopathy]] school, then graduated from the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College in 1884.<ref name="Elmsley">{{Cite book |last=Elmsley|first=John|title=Molecules of Murder|year=2008|page=34|publisher=The Royal Society of Chemistry|place=Cambridge, UK |isbn=978-0854049653}}</ref> After his first wife, Charlotte Jane ([[née]] Bell), died of a [[stroke]] in 1892, Crippen entrusted his parents, living in [[San Jose, California|San Jose]], [[California]], with the care of his son, Hawley Otto (1889-1974).<ref name="Elmsley"/> |
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Having qualified as a |
Having qualified as a homeopath, Crippen started to practice in [[New York City]]. In 1894 he married his second wife, Corrine "Cora" Turner (born Kunigunde Mackamotski), a [[music hall]] singer who performed under the [[stage name]] Belle Elmore.<ref name=ODNB/><ref>1901 England Census: Source Citation: Class: RG13; Piece: 239; Folio: 41; p. 19.</ref> That same year, Crippen started working for prominent homeopath [[James M. Munyon]], moving to [[London]] with his wife in 1897 in order to manage Munyon's branch office there.<ref name=ODNB/> |
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Crippen |
Crippen's medical qualifications from the United States were not sufficient to allow him to practise as a doctor in the United Kingdom.<ref name=spilsbury>{{cite book | title=Bernard Spilsbury: his life and cases | first1=Douglas G. | last1=Browne | first2=E.V. | last2=Tullett | publisher=Penguin Books | location=Harmondsworth | year=1955 | pages=31–54 }}</ref> He initially continued working as a distributor of [[patent medicine]]s,<ref>Larson 2006, p. 105</ref> while Cora embarked on an ultimately failed stage career and socialised with a number of [[variety entertainment|variety]] players of the time.<ref>Larson 2006, p. 159</ref> |
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Crippen was sacked by Munyon |
After Crippen was sacked by Munyon in 1899 he worked for other patent medicine companies, ultimately being hired as the manager for the Drouet Institute for the Deaf. There he hired [[Ethel Le Neve]], a young typist, in 1900. By 1905, the two were having an affair.<ref name=ODNB/> After living at various addresses around London, Crippen and his wife finally moved No. 39 Hilldrop Crescent, [[Camden Road]], [[Holloway, London|Holloway]], where they took in lodgers to augment Crippen's meagre income. Cora had an affair with one of these lodgers, and in turn, Crippen took Le Neve as his mistress in 1908.<ref name=ODNB/> |
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==Murder and disappearance== |
==Murder and disappearance== |
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[[File:Belle Elmore.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Belle Elmore]] |
[[File:Belle Elmore.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Belle Elmore]] |
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On the evening of 31 January 1910, Cora disappeared following a party at the Crippen residence at Hilldrop Crescent. Crippen claimed that she had returned to the US and later added that she had died and had been cremated in California. Meanwhile, Le Neve moved into Hilldrop Crescent and began openly wearing Cora's clothes and jewelry. |
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Police first heard of Cora's disappearance from her friend, the strongwoman [[Vulcana|Kate "Vulcana" Williams]],<ref name="Home_Truths">{{Cite AV media |last1=Hunt |first1=Jane |last2=Peel |first2=John |author2-link=John Peel |contribution=Vulcana and Atlas |title=[[Home Truths]] |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |date=August 30, 2004 |contribution-url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/20040830_vulcana_atlas.shtml |access-date=October 11, 2015}}</ref> but began to take the matter more seriously when asked to investigate |
Police first heard of Cora's disappearance from her friend, the strongwoman [[Vulcana|Kate "Vulcana" Williams]],<ref name="Home_Truths">{{Cite AV media |last1=Hunt |first1=Jane |last2=Peel |first2=John |author2-link=John Peel |contribution=Vulcana and Atlas |title=[[Home Truths]] |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |date=August 30, 2004 |contribution-url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/20040830_vulcana_atlas.shtml |access-date=October 11, 2015}}</ref> but began to take the matter more seriously when asked to investigate when two other friends, the actress [[Lil Hawthorne]] and her husband/manager John Nash, pressed their acquaintance, [[Scotland Yard]] [[Superintendent (police)|Superintendent]] [[Frank Froest]].<ref>Larson 2006, pp. 347–348</ref> Crippen's house was searched, but nothing was found. |
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Under questioning by Chief Inspector [[Walter Dew]], Crippen admitted that he had fabricated the story about his wife having died, claiming that he did so to avoid personal embarrassment because she had in fact left him and fled to the US with one of her lovers, a music hall actor named Bruce Miller. Dew was satisfied with Crippen's story. However, Crippen and Le Neve did not know this and fled in panic to [[Brussels]], where they spent the night at a hotel. The following day, they went to [[Antwerp]] and boarded the [[Canadian Pacific]] liner {{SS|Montrose|1897|6}}, bound for Canada. |
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⚫ | The couple's disappearance led police to perform further searches of the house. During the fourth and final search, they found the [[torso]] of a human body buried under the brick floor of the basement. William Willcox (later Sir William Willcox, senior scientific analyst to the [[Home Office]]) found traces of the |
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⚫ | The couple's disappearance led police to perform further searches of the house. During the fourth and final search, they found the [[torso]] of a human body buried under the brick floor of the basement. William Willcox (later Sir William Willcox, senior scientific analyst to the [[Home Office]]) found traces of the toxic compound [[Hyoscine hydrobromide|hyoscine hydrobromide]] (scopalamine) in the torso.<ref name="oldbailey">{{cite web|url=https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t19101011-74 |title=Old Bailey Proceedings (11th October 1910)}}</ref> The remains were identified as Cora's by a piece of skin from the abdomen; the head, limbs and skeleton were never recovered. Her remains were later interred at the [[St Pancras and Islington Cemetery]], [[East Finchley]]. |
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===Transatlantic arrest=== |
===Transatlantic arrest=== |
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Crippen was tried at the [[Old Bailey]] before the [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Lord Chief Justice]], [[Richard Webster, 1st Viscount Alverstone|Lord Alverstone]], on 18 October 1910. The proceedings lasted four days. |
Crippen was tried at the [[Old Bailey]] before the [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Lord Chief Justice]], [[Richard Webster, 1st Viscount Alverstone|Lord Alverstone]], on 18 October 1910. The proceedings lasted four days. |
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The first prosecution witnesses were pathologists. One of them, [[Bernard Spilsbury]], testified they could not identify the torso remains or even discern whether they were male or female. However, |
The first [[prosecution]] witnesses were pathologists. One of them, [[Bernard Spilsbury]], testified they could not identify the torso remains or even discern whether they were male or female. However, Spilsbury found a piece of skin with what he claimed to be an abdominal scar consistent with Cora's medical history.<ref name=spilsbury/><ref name="CNJ">{{cite news |work= Camden New Journal |date=December 27, 2007 |page=14 |title=Will the Devil's advocate get a pardon for Crippen? |url=http://www.thecnj.com/review/2007/122707/feat122707_02.html?headline=Will_the_Devil%E2%80%99s_advocate_get_a_pardon_for_Crippen%3F|access-date=October 1, 2008}}</ref> Large quantities of scopalamine were found in the remains, and Crippen had purchased the drug before the murder from a local chemist. |
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Crippen's defence, led by [[Alfred Tobin]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Mr Alfred A Tobin's Promotion |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001667/19150515/107/0006 |access-date=9 January 2023 |work=Preston Herald |issue=5440 |date=15 May 1915 |page=6|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access= subscription}}</ref><ref>{{ cite news |
Crippen's [[defense (law)|defence]], led by [[Alfred Tobin]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Mr Alfred A Tobin's Promotion |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001667/19150515/107/0006 |access-date=9 January 2023 |work=Preston Herald |issue=5440 |date=15 May 1915 |page=6|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access= subscription}}</ref><ref>{{ cite news |
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| via= [[Old Bailey]] online |
| via= [[Old Bailey]] online |
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| series= Proceedings of the Central Criminal Court |
| series= Proceedings of the Central Criminal Court |
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| date= 18 October 1910 |
| date= 18 October 1910 |
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| url =https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/images.jsp?doc=191010110146 |
| url =https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/images.jsp?doc=191010110146 |
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}}</ref> maintained that Cora had fled to |
}}</ref> maintained that Cora had fled to the US with Bruce Miller and that Cora and Hawley had been living at the house only since 1905, suggesting a previous owner of the house was responsible for the placement of the remains. The defence asserted that the abdominal scar identified by Spilsbury was really just folded tissue, for, among other things, it had hair follicles growing from it, something scar tissue could not have;<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Spilsbury observed that the [[sebaceous gland]]s appeared at the ends but not in the middle of the scar.<ref name=spilsbury/> |
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Other evidence presented by the prosecution included a piece of a man's pyjama top supposedly from a pair Cora had given Crippen a year earlier. The pyjama bottoms were found in Crippen's bedroom, but not the top. The fragment included the manufacturer's label, Jones Bros. |
Other evidence presented by the prosecution included a piece of a man's pyjama top, supposedly from a pair Cora had given Crippen a year earlier. The pyjama bottoms were found in Crippen's bedroom, but not the top. The fragment included the manufacturer's label, Jones Bros. Testimony from a Jones Bros. representative stated that the product was not sold prior to 1908, thus placing the date of manufacture well within the time period of when the Crippens occupied the house and when Cora gave the garment to Hawley the year before in 1909.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> Curlers, and bleached hair consistent with Cora's, were also found with the remains.<ref name=Elmsley42>Elmsley, p. 42</ref> |
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[[File:The Trial of Dr-Crippen.jpg|thumb|Sketches from the trial of Dr. Crippen]] |
[[File:The Trial of Dr-Crippen.jpg|thumb|Sketches from the trial of Dr. Crippen]] |
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Throughout the proceedings and at his sentencing, Crippen showed no remorse for his wife, only concern for his lover's reputation. The jury found Crippen guilty of murder after just |
Throughout the proceedings and at his sentencing, Crippen showed no remorse for his wife, only concern for his lover's reputation. The jury found Crippen guilty of murder after just twenty-seven minutes of deliberations. Le Neve was charged only with being an [[accessory after the fact]] and [[acquittal|acquitted]].<ref name=ODNB/> |
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Although Crippen never gave any reason for killing his wife, several theories have been propounded. One was by the late Victorian and Edwardian barrister [[Edward Marshall Hall]] who believed that Crippen was using |
Although Crippen never gave any reason for killing his wife, several theories have been propounded. One was by the late Victorian and Edwardian [[barrister]] [[Edward Marshall Hall]], who believed that Crippen was using scopalamine on his wife as a [[depressant]] or [[anaphrodisiac]] but accidentally gave her an overdose and then panicked when she died.<ref name=spilsbury/> It is said that Hall declined to lead Crippen's defence because another theory was to be propounded.<ref>{{cite book | editor=Harry Hodge | first=Filson | last=Young | title=Famous Trials | volume=I | page=124 | publisher=Penguin Books | location=Harmondsworth | year=1954 }}</ref> |
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In 1981, several British newspapers reported that [[Sir Hugh Rankin, 3rd Baronet|Sir Hugh Rhys Rankin]] claimed to have |
In 1981, several British newspapers reported that [[Sir Hugh Rankin, 3rd Baronet|Sir Hugh Rhys Rankin]] claimed to have encountered Le Neve in Australia, where she told him that Crippen murdered his wife because she had [[syphilis]].<ref>{{cite book | title=The new murderers' who's who | first1=J. H. H. | last1=Gaute | first2=Robin | last2=Odell | publisher=Dorset Press | year=1991 | isbn=978-0-88029-582-6 | page=[https://archive.org/details/newmurdererswhos0000unse/page/100 100] | url=https://archive.org/details/newmurdererswhos0000unse/page/100 }}</ref> |
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===Execution=== |
===Execution=== |
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Crippen was hanged by [[John Ellis (executioner)|John Ellis]] at [[Pentonville Prison]], London at 9 am on Wednesday 23 November 1910.<ref name=ODNB/><ref>{{cite book | title=Lancashire magic & mystery: secrets of the Red Rose County | first=Kenneth |last= Fields | publisher=Sigma | year=1998 | isbn=978-1-85058-606-7 | page=115 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Supper with the Crippens | first=David James | last= Smith | publisher=Hachette UK | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-4091-3413-8 }}</ref> |
Crippen was hanged by [[John Ellis (executioner)|John Ellis]] at [[Pentonville Prison]], London, at 9 am on Wednesday 23 November 1910.<ref name=ODNB/><ref>{{cite book | title=Lancashire magic & mystery: secrets of the Red Rose County | first=Kenneth |last= Fields | publisher=Sigma | year=1998 | isbn=978-1-85058-606-7 | page=115 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Supper with the Crippens | first=David James | last= Smith | publisher=Hachette UK | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-4091-3413-8 }}</ref> |
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Le Neve sailed to the |
Le Neve sailed to the US before settling in Canada finding work as a typist. She returned to Britain in 1915 and died in 1967.<ref name="Rwilkes">{{cite news |last=Wilkes |first=Roger |title=Inside story: last refuge for a killer's mistress |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/3298093/Inside-story-last-refuge-for-a-killers-mistress.html |url-status=dead |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |publication-place=London |date=30 January 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224034051/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/3298093/Inside-story-last-refuge-for-a-killers-mistress.html |archive-date=24 December 2017 |issn=0307-1235 |oclc=49632006 |access-date=2023-11-29}}</ref> At Crippen's request, a photograph of Le Neve was placed in his coffin and buried with him.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} |
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Although Crippen's grave in Pentonville's grounds is not marked by a stone, tradition has it that soon after his burial, a rose bush was planted over it. Some of his relatives in Michigan have begun{{When|date=November 2023}} lobbying for his remains to be repatriated to the |
Although Crippen's grave in Pentonville's grounds is not marked by a stone, tradition has it that soon after his burial, a rose bush was planted over it. Some of his relatives in Michigan have begun{{When|date=November 2023}} lobbying for his remains to be [[repatriation|repatriated]] to the US.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} |
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==Crippen's guilt== |
==Crippen's guilt== |
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Questions have arisen about the investigation, trial and evidence that convicted Crippen in 1910. [[Dornford Yates]], a |
Questions have arisen about the investigation, trial and evidence that convicted Crippen in 1910. [[Dornford Yates]], a junior barrister at the original trial, wrote in his memoirs ''[[As Berry and I Were Saying]]'', that Lord Alverstone took the very unusual step, at the request of the prosecution, of refusing to give a copy of the sworn [[affidavit]] used to issue the arrest warrant to Crippen's defence counsel. The judge without challenge accepted the prosecution's argument that the withholding of the document would not prejudice the accused's case. Yates said he knew why the prosecution did this but – despite the passage of years – refused to disclose why.<ref>''As Berry And I Were Saying'' {{ISBN|0-755-10036-0}} p. 253</ref> Yates noted that although Crippen placed the torso in dry [[Calcium oxide|quicklime]] to be destroyed, he did not realise that when it became wet it turned into [[slaked lime]], which is a preservative,<ref name="pubmed/22030481">{{cite journal |last1=Schotsmans |first1=Eline M.J. |last2=Denton |first2=John |last3=Dekeirsschieter |first3=Jessica |last4=Ivaneanu |first4=Tatiana |last5=Leentjes |first5=Sarah |last6=Janaway |first6=Rob C. |last7=Wilson |first7=Andrew S. |title=Effects of hydrated lime and quicklime on the decay of buried human remains using pig cadavers as human body analogues |journal=Forensic Science International |date=April 2012 |volume=217 |issue=1–3 |pages=50–59 |doi=10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.09.025 |pmid=22030481 |hdl=2268/107339 |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22030481/ |access-date=12 May 2023|hdl-access=free }}</ref> a fact that Yates used in the plot of his novel ''[[The House That Berry Built]]''. |
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The American-British crime novelist [[Raymond Chandler]] thought it unbelievable that Crippen could be so stupid as to bury his wife's torso under the cellar floor of his home while successfully disposing of her head and limbs.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Raymond Chandler Speaking|last=Chandler|first=Raymond|publisher=University of California Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-520-20835-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/raymondchandlers00chan_0/page/197 197]|url=https://archive.org/details/raymondchandlers00chan_0/page/197}} (Letter to James Sandoe 15 December 1948)</ref> |
The American-British crime novelist [[Raymond Chandler]] thought it unbelievable that Crippen could be so stupid as to bury his wife's torso under the cellar floor of his home while successfully disposing of her head and limbs.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Raymond Chandler Speaking|last=Chandler|first=Raymond|publisher=University of California Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-520-20835-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/raymondchandlers00chan_0/page/197 197]|url=https://archive.org/details/raymondchandlers00chan_0/page/197}} (Letter to James Sandoe 15 December 1948)</ref> |
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===New scientific evidence=== |
===New scientific evidence=== |
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In October 2007, [[Michigan State University]] [[forensic science|forensic scientist]] David Foran claimed that [[mitochondrial DNA]] evidence showed the remains found |
In October 2007, [[Michigan State University]] [[forensic science|forensic scientist]] David Foran claimed that [[mitochondrial DNA]] evidence showed the remains found in Crippen's cellar were not those of his wife. Researchers used [[genealogy]] to identify three living relatives of Cora Crippen (great-nieces). By providing mitochondrial DNA [[haplotype]], researchers were able to compare their DNA with that extracted from a microscope slide containing flesh taken from the torso in Crippen's cellar.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/oct/17/ukcrime.science |title=100 years on, DNA casts doubt on Crippen case |last1=Hodgson |first1=Martin |date=October 16, 2007 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=October 11, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Times_20071017">{{cite news| first=Patrick | last=Foster |work=The Times |date=17 October 2007 | url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2674601.ece |title=Doctor Crippen may have been innocent | location=London |url-access=subscription |access-date=May 4, 2010 }}</ref> The original remains were also tested using a highly sensitive assay of the [[Y chromosome]] that found the flesh sample on the slide was male.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10802059|title=Was Dr Crippen innocent of his wife's murder?|work=BBC News|date= 29 July 2010}}</ref> |
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The same research team also argued that a scar found on the torso's abdomen, which the original trial's prosecution argued was the same one Mrs. Crippen was known to have, was incorrectly identified. The scientists found hair follicles in the tissue which should not be present in scars |
The same research team also argued that a scar found on the torso's abdomen, which the original trial's prosecution argued was the same one Mrs. Crippen was known to have, was incorrectly identified. The scientists found hair follicles in the tissue which should not be present in scars, a medical fact which Crippen's defence used at his trial.<ref name="Times_20071017" /> Their research was published in the August 2010 issue of the ''[[Journal of Forensic Sciences]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01532.x|title=The Conviction of Dr. Crippen: New Forensic Findings in a Century-Old Murder|year=2011 |doi=10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01532.x |last1=Foran |first1=David R. |last2=Wills |first2=Beth E. |last3=Kiley |first3=Brianne M. |last4=Jackson |first4=Carrie B. |last5=Trestrail Iii |first5=John H. |journal=Journal of Forensic Sciences |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=233–240 |pmid=20735704 |s2cid=3452841 }}</ref> |
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However, the new scientific evidence for Crippen's innocence has been disputed.<ref name="Menges2008">{{cite book |last= Menges |first= Jonathan |chapter='Another World and Another Judge': Do New Scientific Tests Clear Crippen? |title=Ripper Notes: The Legend Continues | isbn = 978-0-9789112-2-5 |year=2008 |publisher=Inkling Press }}</ref><ref name="Times_20080701"> |
However, the new scientific evidence for Crippen's innocence has been disputed.<ref name="Menges2008">{{cite book |last= Menges |first= Jonathan |chapter='Another World and Another Judge': Do New Scientific Tests Clear Crippen? |title=Ripper Notes: The Legend Continues | isbn = 978-0-9789112-2-5 |year=2008 |publisher=Inkling Press }}</ref><ref name="Times_20080701"> |
Revision as of 23:42, 4 December 2023
Hawley Harvey Crippen | |
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Born | |
Died | November 23, 1910 Pentonville Prison, London, England, UK | (aged 48)
Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
Resting place | HM Prison Pentonville |
Occupation | Homeopath |
Known for | First suspect to be captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy[1] |
Criminal status | Executed |
Spouse(s) | Charlotte Crippen (died 1892) Corrine Henrietta Turner
(m. 1894; died 1910) |
Conviction(s) | Murder |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Details | |
Victims | Corrine Henrietta Crippen |
Date | c. January 31, 1910 |
Date apprehended | July 31, 1910 |
Hawley Harvey Crippen (September 11, 1862 – November 23, 1910), colloquially known as Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopath, ear and eye specialist and medicine dispenser who was hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen. He was one of the first criminals to be captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy.[1]
Early life and career
Hawley Crippen was born in Coldwater, Michigan,[2] the only surviving child to Andresse Skinner[3] and Myron Augustus Crippen,[4] a merchant.[5] He was educated first at the University of Michigan's homeopathy school, then graduated from the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College in 1884.[6] After his first wife, Charlotte Jane (née Bell), died of a stroke in 1892, Crippen entrusted his parents, living in San Jose, California, with the care of his son, Hawley Otto (1889-1974).[6]
Having qualified as a homeopath, Crippen started to practice in New York City. In 1894 he married his second wife, Corrine "Cora" Turner (born Kunigunde Mackamotski), a music hall singer who performed under the stage name Belle Elmore.[5][7] That same year, Crippen started working for prominent homeopath James M. Munyon, moving to London with his wife in 1897 in order to manage Munyon's branch office there.[5]
Crippen's medical qualifications from the United States were not sufficient to allow him to practise as a doctor in the United Kingdom.[8] He initially continued working as a distributor of patent medicines,[9] while Cora embarked on an ultimately failed stage career and socialised with a number of variety players of the time.[10]
After Crippen was sacked by Munyon in 1899 he worked for other patent medicine companies, ultimately being hired as the manager for the Drouet Institute for the Deaf. There he hired Ethel Le Neve, a young typist, in 1900. By 1905, the two were having an affair.[5] After living at various addresses around London, Crippen and his wife finally moved No. 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden Road, Holloway, where they took in lodgers to augment Crippen's meagre income. Cora had an affair with one of these lodgers, and in turn, Crippen took Le Neve as his mistress in 1908.[5]
Murder and disappearance
On the evening of 31 January 1910, Cora disappeared following a party at the Crippen residence at Hilldrop Crescent. Crippen claimed that she had returned to the US and later added that she had died and had been cremated in California. Meanwhile, Le Neve moved into Hilldrop Crescent and began openly wearing Cora's clothes and jewelry.
Police first heard of Cora's disappearance from her friend, the strongwoman Kate "Vulcana" Williams,[11] but began to take the matter more seriously when asked to investigate when two other friends, the actress Lil Hawthorne and her husband/manager John Nash, pressed their acquaintance, Scotland Yard Superintendent Frank Froest.[12] Crippen's house was searched, but nothing was found.
Under questioning by Chief Inspector Walter Dew, Crippen admitted that he had fabricated the story about his wife having died, claiming that he did so to avoid personal embarrassment because she had in fact left him and fled to the US with one of her lovers, a music hall actor named Bruce Miller. Dew was satisfied with Crippen's story. However, Crippen and Le Neve did not know this and fled in panic to Brussels, where they spent the night at a hotel. The following day, they went to Antwerp and boarded the Canadian Pacific liner SS Montrose, bound for Canada.
The couple's disappearance led police to perform further searches of the house. During the fourth and final search, they found the torso of a human body buried under the brick floor of the basement. William Willcox (later Sir William Willcox, senior scientific analyst to the Home Office) found traces of the toxic compound hyoscine hydrobromide (scopalamine) in the torso.[13] The remains were identified as Cora's by a piece of skin from the abdomen; the head, limbs and skeleton were never recovered. Her remains were later interred at the St Pancras and Islington Cemetery, East Finchley.
Transatlantic arrest
Meanwhile, Crippen and Le Neve were crossing the Atlantic aboard Montrose, with Le Neve disguised as a boy. Captain Henry George Kendall recognised the fugitives and, just before steaming beyond the range of his ship-board transmitter, had telegraphist Lawrence Ernest Hughes send a wireless telegram to the British authorities: "Have strong suspicions that Crippen London cellar murderer and accomplice are among saloon passengers. Mustache taken off growing beard. Accomplice dressed as boy. Manner and build undoubtedly a girl." Had Crippen travelled third class, he probably would have escaped Kendall's notice. Dew boarded a faster White Star liner, SS Laurentic, from Liverpool, arrived in Quebec ahead of Crippen, and contacted the Canadian authorities.
As Montrose entered the St. Lawrence River, Dew came aboard disguised as a pilot. Canada was then still a dominion within the British Empire. If Crippen, an American citizen, had sailed to the US instead, even if he had been recognised, it would have taken extradition proceedings to bring him to trial. Kendall invited Crippen to meet the pilots as they came aboard. Dew removed his pilot's cap and said, "Good morning, Dr. Crippen. Do you know me? I'm Chief Inspector Dew from Scotland Yard." After a pause, Crippen replied, "Thank God it's over. The suspense has been too great. I couldn't stand it any longer." He then held out his wrists for the handcuffs. Crippen and Le Neve were arrested on board Montrose on 31 July 1910. Crippen was returned to the UK on board the SS Megantic.[14]
Trial
Crippen was tried at the Old Bailey before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Alverstone, on 18 October 1910. The proceedings lasted four days.
The first prosecution witnesses were pathologists. One of them, Bernard Spilsbury, testified they could not identify the torso remains or even discern whether they were male or female. However, Spilsbury found a piece of skin with what he claimed to be an abdominal scar consistent with Cora's medical history.[8][15] Large quantities of scopalamine were found in the remains, and Crippen had purchased the drug before the murder from a local chemist.
Crippen's defence, led by Alfred Tobin,[16][17] maintained that Cora had fled to the US with Bruce Miller and that Cora and Hawley had been living at the house only since 1905, suggesting a previous owner of the house was responsible for the placement of the remains. The defence asserted that the abdominal scar identified by Spilsbury was really just folded tissue, for, among other things, it had hair follicles growing from it, something scar tissue could not have;[18] Spilsbury observed that the sebaceous glands appeared at the ends but not in the middle of the scar.[8]
Other evidence presented by the prosecution included a piece of a man's pyjama top, supposedly from a pair Cora had given Crippen a year earlier. The pyjama bottoms were found in Crippen's bedroom, but not the top. The fragment included the manufacturer's label, Jones Bros. Testimony from a Jones Bros. representative stated that the product was not sold prior to 1908, thus placing the date of manufacture well within the time period of when the Crippens occupied the house and when Cora gave the garment to Hawley the year before in 1909.[18] Curlers, and bleached hair consistent with Cora's, were also found with the remains.[19]
Throughout the proceedings and at his sentencing, Crippen showed no remorse for his wife, only concern for his lover's reputation. The jury found Crippen guilty of murder after just twenty-seven minutes of deliberations. Le Neve was charged only with being an accessory after the fact and acquitted.[5]
Although Crippen never gave any reason for killing his wife, several theories have been propounded. One was by the late Victorian and Edwardian barrister Edward Marshall Hall, who believed that Crippen was using scopalamine on his wife as a depressant or anaphrodisiac but accidentally gave her an overdose and then panicked when she died.[8] It is said that Hall declined to lead Crippen's defence because another theory was to be propounded.[20]
In 1981, several British newspapers reported that Sir Hugh Rhys Rankin claimed to have encountered Le Neve in Australia, where she told him that Crippen murdered his wife because she had syphilis.[21]
Execution
Crippen was hanged by John Ellis at Pentonville Prison, London, at 9 am on Wednesday 23 November 1910.[5][22][23]
Le Neve sailed to the US before settling in Canada finding work as a typist. She returned to Britain in 1915 and died in 1967.[24] At Crippen's request, a photograph of Le Neve was placed in his coffin and buried with him.[citation needed]
Although Crippen's grave in Pentonville's grounds is not marked by a stone, tradition has it that soon after his burial, a rose bush was planted over it. Some of his relatives in Michigan have begun[when?] lobbying for his remains to be repatriated to the US.[citation needed]
Crippen's guilt
Questions have arisen about the investigation, trial and evidence that convicted Crippen in 1910. Dornford Yates, a junior barrister at the original trial, wrote in his memoirs As Berry and I Were Saying, that Lord Alverstone took the very unusual step, at the request of the prosecution, of refusing to give a copy of the sworn affidavit used to issue the arrest warrant to Crippen's defence counsel. The judge without challenge accepted the prosecution's argument that the withholding of the document would not prejudice the accused's case. Yates said he knew why the prosecution did this but – despite the passage of years – refused to disclose why.[25] Yates noted that although Crippen placed the torso in dry quicklime to be destroyed, he did not realise that when it became wet it turned into slaked lime, which is a preservative,[26] a fact that Yates used in the plot of his novel The House That Berry Built.
The American-British crime novelist Raymond Chandler thought it unbelievable that Crippen could be so stupid as to bury his wife's torso under the cellar floor of his home while successfully disposing of her head and limbs.[27]
Another theory is that Crippen was carrying out illegal abortions and the torso was that of one of his patients who died and not his wife.[28]
New scientific evidence
In October 2007, Michigan State University forensic scientist David Foran claimed that mitochondrial DNA evidence showed the remains found in Crippen's cellar were not those of his wife. Researchers used genealogy to identify three living relatives of Cora Crippen (great-nieces). By providing mitochondrial DNA haplotype, researchers were able to compare their DNA with that extracted from a microscope slide containing flesh taken from the torso in Crippen's cellar.[29][30] The original remains were also tested using a highly sensitive assay of the Y chromosome that found the flesh sample on the slide was male.[31]
The same research team also argued that a scar found on the torso's abdomen, which the original trial's prosecution argued was the same one Mrs. Crippen was known to have, was incorrectly identified. The scientists found hair follicles in the tissue which should not be present in scars, a medical fact which Crippen's defence used at his trial.[30] Their research was published in the August 2010 issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences.[32]
However, the new scientific evidence for Crippen's innocence has been disputed.[33][34] In The Times, journalist David Aaronovitch wrote: "As to the body being male, well the American team was using a 'special technique' that is 'very new' and 'done only by this team' and working on a single, century-old slide, described by the team leader as a 'less than optimal sample'".[34] Foran responded by saying "tests showed unequivocally that the remains were male".[18]
Traces of the blonde hair found in curlers at the scene are now preserved in the Metropolitan Police's Crime Museum. Another researcher said they asked to be provided with samples from them for DNA testing, but the request has been denied several times.[18] However, New Scotland Yard was willing to test a hair from the crime scene for a fee, which in turn was rejected by the investigators as "over the top."[18] Researchers hypothesized that the police planted the body parts and particularly the fragment of the pyjama top at the scene to incriminate Crippen. He[who?] suggests that Scotland Yard was under tremendous public pressure to find and bring to trial a suspect for this heinous crime. An independent observer points out that the case did not become public until after the remains were found.[18]
In December 2009, the UK's Criminal Cases Review Commission, having reviewed the case, declared that the Court of Appeal will not hear the case to pardon Crippen posthumously.[35]
Media portrayals
- The murder inspired Arthur Machen's 1927 short story "The Islington Mystery", which in turn was adapted as the 1960 Mexican film El Esqueleto de la señora Morales.
- The gang defeated by Elsa Lanchester in the H.G. Wells-scripted crime comedy Blue Bottles (1928) is revealed to be related to the Crippen case.
- It is thought to have inspired the 1935 novel We, the Accused by Ernest Raymond.[citation needed]
- The German 1942 feature film Doctor Crippen on Board, directed by Erich Engels, stars Rudolf Fernau in the title role. (A 1958 Engels film Doctor Crippen Lives is neither a sequel nor about Crippen.)
- The character of Mr. Pugh in the radio drama Under Milk Wood, by Dylan Thomas, is described as sporting a "nicotine-eggyellow weeping walrus Victorian moustache worn thick and long in memory of Doctor Crippen". Throughout the play, he obsessively fantasises about murdering his wife, but never attempts to do so.
- The 1961 Wolf Mankowitz-Monty Norman musical Belle, or The Ballad of Dr Crippen at London's Strand Theatre was based on the case.[36]
- The British 1962 feature film Dr. Crippen stars Donald Pleasence in the title role and Samantha Eggar as Le Neve.
- The British 1968 film Negatives features Peter McEnery and Glenda Jackson as a couple whose erotic fantasies involve dressing up as Crippen and Ethel le Neve.
- The American TV series Ironside presented an episode (season 2, episode 16, January 23, 1969: "Why the Tuesday Afternoon Bridge Club Met on Thursday") in which a neurotic man assumed Dr. Crippen's identity and committed a similar murder.
- In Carry On Loving, which was made and set in 1970, there is a jokily anachronistic reference to the Crippen case: Peter Butterworth appears in Edwardian costume as 'Dr Crippen', visiting a marriage bureau to seek a third wife, having dispatched both his first two.
- In the 1972 season of Australian TV soap opera, Number 96, a plot line involving the death of Sylvia Vansard (in which her estranged chemist husband and his mistress are the main suspects), deliberately homages the Crippen story. It was referenced in the official synopses provided to the screenwriters.
- The Crippen saga is the basis for 1982's The False Inspector Dew, a detective novel by Peter Lovesey.
- The 1989 BBC series Shadow of the Noose, about the life of barrister Edward Marshall Hall, includes an abortive attempt on Hall's part to defend Crippen (played by David Hatton).
- John Boyne wrote the 2004 novel Crippen – A Novel of Murder.
- Erik Larson's 2006 book Thunderstruck interwove the story of the murder with the history of Guglielmo Marconi's invention of radio.
- Martin Edwards wrote the 2008 novel Dancing for the Hangman, which re-interprets the case while seeking to adhere to the established evidence.
- The PBS series Secrets of the Dead episode "Executed in Error" (2008) explored new findings in the Crippen case.
- Dan Weatherer's stage play Crippen (2016) explores the life and crimes of Dr. Hawley Crippen while taking into account new evidence and presenting an alternative theory as to who lay buried beneath the cellar floor.
See also
- John Reginald Christie, English serial killer
- John George Haigh, English serial killer known as the "Acid Bath Murderer"
- Michael Swango, American serial killer
- John Tawell, British murderer and the first criminal to be captured with the use of telecommunications technology
- Dorothea Waddingham, English nursing home matron and murderer
References
- ^ a b "Executed in Error | Hawley Crippen". Secrets of the Dead. PBS. September 28, 2008. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
- ^ "Hawley Harvey Crippen". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
- ^ US Federal Census: Year: 1880; Census Place: San Jose, Santa Clara, California; Roll T9_81; Family History Film: 1254081; p. 54.3000; Enumeration District: 243; Image: 0335; and 1870 US Federal Census: 1870; Census Place: Coldwater Ward 2, Branch, Michigan; Roll M593_665; p. 152A; Image: 310; Family History Library Film: 552164.
- ^ Reitwiesner, William Addams. "Ancestry of Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen". wargs.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g Fido, Martin (2004). "Crippen, Hawley Harvey (1862–1910), murderer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39420. Retrieved May 12, 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b Elmsley, John (2008). Molecules of Murder. Cambridge, UK: The Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 34. ISBN 978-0854049653.
- ^ 1901 England Census: Source Citation: Class: RG13; Piece: 239; Folio: 41; p. 19.
- ^ a b c d Browne, Douglas G.; Tullett, E.V. (1955). Bernard Spilsbury: his life and cases. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 31–54.
- ^ Larson 2006, p. 105
- ^ Larson 2006, p. 159
- ^ Hunt, Jane; Peel, John (August 30, 2004). "Vulcana and Atlas". Home Truths. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
- ^ Larson 2006, pp. 347–348
- ^ "Old Bailey Proceedings (11th October 1910)".
- ^ "Megantic – 1908". Shawsvillships.
- ^ "Will the Devil's advocate get a pardon for Crippen?". Camden New Journal. December 27, 2007. p. 14. Retrieved October 1, 2008.
- ^ "Mr Alfred A Tobin's Promotion". Preston Herald. No. 5440. May 15, 1915. p. 6. Retrieved January 9, 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Before the Lord Chief Justice". Proceedings of the Central Criminal Court. October 18, 1910. p. 712 – via Old Bailey online.
- ^ a b c d e f "Executed in Error:Secrets of the Dead; broadcaster: Original US broadcast date: October 2008". PBS. Archived from the original on November 14, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
- ^ Elmsley, p. 42
- ^ Young, Filson (1954). Harry Hodge (ed.). Famous Trials. Vol. I. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 124.
- ^ Gaute, J. H. H.; Odell, Robin (1991). The new murderers' who's who. Dorset Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-88029-582-6.
- ^ Fields, Kenneth (1998). Lancashire magic & mystery: secrets of the Red Rose County. Sigma. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-85058-606-7.
- ^ Smith, David James (2010). Supper with the Crippens. Hachette UK. ISBN 978-1-4091-3413-8.
- ^ Wilkes, Roger (January 30, 2002). "Inside story: last refuge for a killer's mistress". The Daily Telegraph. London. ISSN 0307-1235. OCLC 49632006. Archived from the original on December 24, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
- ^ As Berry And I Were Saying ISBN 0-755-10036-0 p. 253
- ^ Schotsmans, Eline M.J.; Denton, John; Dekeirsschieter, Jessica; Ivaneanu, Tatiana; Leentjes, Sarah; Janaway, Rob C.; Wilson, Andrew S. (April 2012). "Effects of hydrated lime and quicklime on the decay of buried human remains using pig cadavers as human body analogues". Forensic Science International. 217 (1–3): 50–59. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.09.025. hdl:2268/107339. PMID 22030481. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
- ^ Chandler, Raymond (1997). Raymond Chandler Speaking. University of California Press. pp. 197. ISBN 978-0-520-20835-3. (Letter to James Sandoe 15 December 1948)
- ^ Cockcroft, Lucy (October 17, 2007). "US scientists: Dr Crippen was innocent". Telegraph. London. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
- ^ Hodgson, Martin (October 16, 2007). "100 years on, DNA casts doubt on Crippen case". The Guardian. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
- ^ a b Foster, Patrick (October 17, 2007). "Doctor Crippen may have been innocent". The Times. London. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
- ^ "Was Dr Crippen innocent of his wife's murder?". BBC News. July 29, 2010.
- ^ Foran, David R.; Wills, Beth E.; Kiley, Brianne M.; Jackson, Carrie B.; Trestrail Iii, John H. (2011). "The Conviction of Dr. Crippen: New Forensic Findings in a Century-Old Murder". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 56 (1): 233–240. doi:10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01532.x. PMID 20735704. S2CID 3452841.
- ^ Menges, Jonathan (2008). "'Another World and Another Judge': Do New Scientific Tests Clear Crippen?". Ripper Notes: The Legend Continues. Inkling Press. ISBN 978-0-9789112-2-5.
- ^ a b Aaronovitch, David (July 1, 2008). "I'll eat my hat if Dr Crippen was innocent – OK?". The Times. London. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008.
- ^ "lawmentor.co.uk". Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
- ^ 'Belle is here', The Stage (May 4, 1961), p.1.
Further reading
- Coniam, Matthew (2021). Mr Crippen, Cora & the Body in the Basement. Pen & Sword Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-399-009720.
- Connell, Nicholas (2005). Walter Dew; The Man Who Caught Crippen. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7509-3803-7.
- Cullen, Tom (1977). The Mild Murderer: The True Story of the Dr. Crippen Case. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 978-0-395-25776-0.
- Dalrymple, Roger (2020). Crippen: A Crime Sensation in Memory and Modernity. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-7874-4677-9.
- Goodman, Jonathan, ed. (1985). The Crippen File. London, New York: Allison & Busby, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85031-636-0.
- Gaute, J.H.H.; Odell, Robin (1996). The New Murderer's Who's Who. London: Harrap Books. ISBN 978-0-245-54639-6.
- Smith, David James (2005). Supper with the Crippens. Orion Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7528-7772-3.
- Larson, Erik (2006). Thunderstruck. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4000-8067-0.
- Saward, Joe (2010). The Man who Caught Crippen. Paris: Morienval Press. ISBN 978-0-9554868-1-4.
- The World's Most Infamous Crimes and Criminals. New York: Gallery Books. 1987. ISBN 978-0-8317-9677-8. OCLC 17304744.
- "Crippen, Hawley Harvey". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39420. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- Finn, Pat (2016) Unsolved 1910. ISBN 978-1535461856
External links
Media related to Hawley Harvey Crippen at Wikimedia Commons
- Geringer, Joseph (2014). "Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen: Of Passion and Poison". truTV Crime Library. Archived from the original on February 11, 2003. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- "Dr. Crippen: One Night In Camden". marconicalling.com. 2014. Archived from the original on May 7, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- "Crippen mystery remains despite DNA claim". BBC News. London: BBC. October 18, 2007. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- "Hawley Harvey Crippen: Witness statements and edited proceeding from records held at The Old Bailey". Old Bailey Online. 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- Le Queux, William (May 1930). "The Girl, the Doctor – and the Missing Wife". True Detective Mysteries. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- Hilton, Chris (July 31, 2010). "Murder, he telegraphed". Wellcome Library. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- "Hawley Harvey Crippen was convicted of the murder of his wife Cora Crippen and sentenced to death". Black Kalendar. October 16, 2019. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
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